Mo' Boardin

When I initially heard that I would be heading to Hokkaido, I decided that it would be pretty silly to waste the opportunity and not learn how to snowboard. This was despite the fact that I had never done it or anything similar before, and despite the fact that I am rather uncoordinated.

Almost three months after my start, the season is now nearing its end and I finally have some decent pictures to show for it. On Sunday we drove out to Kurodake, a mountain in the middle of nowhere and still snow-covered. Since I have a new camera, I documented the experience here for the enjoyment of all!



We headed out in the morning in high spirits, despite it being 7:30 AM. Full of dreams of snow, energy drinks, and beer, we made the roughly two-hour drive into the mountains.



We rode a large ropeway gondola up the mountain, which I didn't get any good pictures of. The ski course at Kurodake is fairly short, but its almost all the way up the mountain - good snow and good views abound.



This is the view from the top of the ropeway - there's still a short walk and a chairlift to ride to the top of the snowboard area.



Here's the view of the mountain peak from the chairlift. One of our party hiked the whole way up. Myself and another guy tried to do it carrying our snowboards, and made it about 200 meters before giving up. As you can see, however, we had a beautiful day for the attempt.



Later on the weather turned worse, but still tolerable. No night skiing at this mountain, however, so we headed out at 3 for ramen, hot springs, and the drive home.

Graduation Day

Have you always wondered what it looks like when a bunch of Japanese 12 year olds graduate from their elementary school and move on to bigger and better things, like junior high? If so, you've come to the right place!

In Japan, the school year starts in April and ends in March. As it is now March, you may have deduced that the school year has just ended. All of my schools thus had graduation ceremonies, ranging from six students to over seventy at the largest schools. Like in American schools, these kids are all 6th year students who are now entering junior high school. All of my graduation events took place at the same time, so I was unfortunately only able to attend one of them; I would have liked to see all of my students graduate, but it was not to be.



The school that I went to was the smallest of my "big" schools, with around 60 students in grades 1 through 6. This school had 11 graduating students. In the morning, all of the non-graduating students assembled in the gym, with the stage all made up for the ceremony. Behind them were stools for the parents and relatives of the graduating students, who hadn't arrived yet. The banner on stage says "Congratulations on Graduation".



The teacher of the 6th year students came in, followed by the graduates, one by one. They walked through the audience to the front of the gym.



Here you can see some of the 6th years at the front. In Japanese elementary schools, students don't wear uniforms; in junior high and high school, they do. The graduating students here are wearing their new uniforms - black suits for the boys and blue skirts and blazers for the girls. These are formal uniforms, for occasions like this and the school entrance ceremony - for day to day class they have school-issued tracksuits. The kids are quite proud of their new uniforms.

Speeches are given and diplomas handed out. After receiving their diplomas, each student says some words of thanks to their family and teachers - one of the advantages of a smaller school. After all have been handed out, the graduating class and the rest of the school sang a few songs.

After the ceremony ended, there were lots of pictures taken, which I'll probably get a hold of later. I did get my picture taken with the teacher of the graduating class:



Some teachers wore traditional ceremonial dress, like this, while others were dressed in western-style suits.

Next week I'll be able to go to the entrance ceremony for one of the middle schools, where I can see some more of my students who's graduations I wasn't able to attend. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this look at an important event in students' lives.

What's Shakin'

My apologies for another long wait. As I'm sure anybody reading this is aware, Japan was struck recently with a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the eastern seaboard, followed by a devastating tsunami. In case anybody reads this that I haven't contacted yet, I am fine; Hokkaido in general was not very strongly affected, and Monbetsu suffered no ill effects at all. Apparently the actual earthquake was vaguely noticeable in town; I didn't notice, as I was busy working on my computer, so that tells you how strong it was. Some towns on the southern coast suffered tsunami waves, but nothing of the level of areas further south. At present, I believe Hokkaido has had a total of one death.

There are a few other things I'd like to say about this disaster. This may sound bad, but bear with me: a disaster of this magnitude could not have picked a better country to happen to than Japan. It is my firm belief that while the damage here is terrible, the cost in human lives and suffering would have been many times worse in any other country.

Japan is a nation well-equipped for disasters. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions are not a possibility here, they are an accepted part of life - it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Japan has extensive procedures, infrastructure, and training put in place for the purpose of disaster warning, evacuation, and recovery. All of these factors, I believe, have helped and will continue to help ensure that Japan passes through this challenge with a minimum of suffering.

Additionally, while Japan may be in an economic low point, it is still a wealthy country. Those who have lost everything to the tsunami - and they are many - will have a much greater chance of recovering a semblance of normalcy faster than they might in a poorer country. Japan also has a relatively functional social safety net, so people who have lost everything are not truly as screwed as they might be elsewhere (not pointing any fingers).

Finally, the Western media seems to be focusing a great deal of attention on Japan's so-called "Nuclear Disaster". Because nuclear power generators were threatened by the tsunami, they have become part of the struggle, but there is no chance of a Chernobyl-style meltdown and the loss of power is far more devastating to Japan than any released radiation might be. There are many sources that can explain the technicalities of why the nuclear shutdown is not the disaster that nuclear-phobic sources want it to be; here is one. Please read this and other sources if you are concerned about the nuclear situation.

Life will recover and go on as normal in Japan. This disaster should be a lesson to us all; disasters do happen, and when they do it pays to be prepared.